Alright guys, dealing with my problems from another post http://www.chevelles.com/forum/Forum5/HTML/002162.html
I made I got a question for ya. How can I disable the neutral safety switch temporarily so I can test a few things. A friend of mine did it on his elky but it has only 2 wires going to the switch, mine has 4, so he wasnt quite sure. I assume two are for the ignition and two are for the backup lights, but which are which?

Anyway if anyone would be as so kind to let me know how/if it can be done so I could finally get this sucker goin again!

Just unbolt the entire switch mount from the column while in park and pull it away. Then the switch will always think you are in park.

Waldo. Adjusting the switch on the bottom of the steering column can be rather difficult.

The 4 wires are for the neutral switch and the backup light. If you remove both the connectors and short each one you will certainly have bypassed the neutral safety (and your backup lights might be lit with no harm). Remove each short at a time and watch the lights. Voila

If you have a multimeter you can measure the resistance of each set of pronges on the switch. It only connects internally, no power or ... The backup set should only short in Reverse. The other set is the n/s which might short either in Park or in Park as well as Neutral.

Hope this helps.

Rob


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www.si.hhs.nl/~rob (http://www.si.hhs.nl/~rob)

The 10g purple wires are the neutral safety switch wires. Removing this plug from the neutral safety switch and putting a jumper across its pins will bypass the switch and allow the car to start in any gear. The light green 14g wires are for the backup lights. Pulling that connector and jumping the pins will turn on the reverse lights as long as the ignition key is on.

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Dave
70 chevelle ss396 conv
66 chevelle ss396 hdp/conv
72 chevelle
55/57/61 chevies
TC member #493
Never forget Earnhardt!

Doh!

[This message has been edited by drptop70ss (edited 01-15-2002).]

Thanks for the help, but unfortunately it didn't fix my problem. My next step is to inspect the ignition switch. Reading my Haynes makes getting to it sound kinda tricky (moving the steering column and whatnot) but hopefully it won't me too bad. http://www.chevelles.com/forum/wink.gif

You only have to drop the steering column. No need to remove it. If you set the e-brake, move the trans shifter into low. You can then get at the screw that moves the shift indicator. After you remove the indicator string, back to park. 2 nuts hold the column up.

Hrmm....well before I go doing that I rekon I better let ya know a few things. Even after shorting the wires the backup lights still wont come on. Heres what I did (Hoo boy, im gonna sound stupid if I did this wrong), I unhooked the two plugs of the NS switch. Unable to find some jumper wires small enough (and unable to find the patience, heh) I clipped and stripped the wires that lead to the plugs. I used a jumper wire to connect the two stripped ends, that should of done it right? Did it to both wires hooked the 10g wires to each ther and the 14g wires to each other. Turned the key on, and the headlights and no backup lights.

So, uh, did I do it right or did I boo boo?

Didn't do wrong but even a paperclip may have been better. Now that you have the neutral safety wires tied together and the backup light wires tied together:
Do you have 12 volts on either of those lines? Key to start for the neutral safety, key to on for the back-up lights.

Make sure as you go deaper into your trouble shooting that you don't forget that you have now disbled the neutral safety switch. You don't want that baby starting if you bump the starter! (;

Just tested it and am indeed getting 12v to em.

Sounds like you have alot of things going on. The blown fuse problem is still in the background but it shouldn't have anything to do with the starting problem. 1st question: on the starter do you have the purple wire on the correct post on your starter? Some older starters have two posts one which runs a wire up to the coil to give the coil a full 12 volts for starting (on pt type ignitions)The purple wire needs to go on the post that you crossed when you used the screwdriver to jump start it. If you have power at the diconnected neutral safety switch then you need to find out what happens in that wire between there and the starter, that it isn't getting the rest of the way. Good luck